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Keywords: palette, dynastic age, unification, pharaoh, bureaucracy, Predynastic artifacts, First Dynasty, Predynastic, protodynastic, social stratification Before the Pharaohs is basically “How Egypt Became the World’s First Nation-State,” just as the subtitle reads. Egypt is rich with artifacts and sites that can answer many questions concerning its early civilizations and societies. Michael Allen Hoffman’s paper begins by discussing James Edward Quibell discovery of a ceremonial palette from the buried ruins of Hierakonpolis. The palette featured etchings of King Narmer. Quibell believed the palette represented the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt into the world’s first nation-state, as described by the title of this paper. Egypt’s dynastic age represented the union of north and south around 3100 B.C. Temple records gave credit to a character named Menes for the unification of Egypt, but no one knows how he did it or whether he truly existed in our time. The palette, whose date matched that of the unification period perfectly, gave credit to Narmer. By combining the two pieces of evidence, the “puzzle pieces” fit to show that Narmer is Menes, the first pharaoh. Egyptians quickly became a sophisticated architectural society during the first few centuries after the unification occurred. They built amazing structures, like stone temples and tombs, at Giza, Memphis, and Abydos. They even developed a unique written language and kept government documents on paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant. The pharaohs created a huge bureaucracy.
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